By Alan Carasso
2nd-CD, $120k, Msw, 2yo, 5f, post time: 1:14 p.m. ET
Winchell Thoroughbreds' SPICE RUNNER (Gun Runner) drew outside in a field of eight and is the 5-2 morning line second favorite to try to snap an unusually cool beginning to the local meeting for the Steve Asmussen barn. A March foal, the homebred is the latest to make the races out of Simple Surprise (Cowboy Cal), who won her maiden at first asking over a sloppy Churchill main track for coming up on 10 years ago for these same connections. Unsurprisingly covered by the Horse of the Year in her first year at stud in 2018, Simple Surprise produced Gunite, who needed three tries to break his maiden and celebrated his best season as a 4-year-old, defeating future champion Elite Power (Curlin) in the GI Forego Stakes before finishing runner-up to that foe in the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint. Gunite put together a record of 4-2-1 from seven appearances beneath the Twin Spires, with three of those scores in stakes company. TJCIS PPs
Not a subscriber? Click here to sign up for the daily PDF or alerts.
